The right attitude will make all of the difference for a happy, healthy retirement.
Most of us are aware that people are living longer
today. There is, in fact an intense hunger for knowledge on how to "age
successfully." The ramifications for the financial advisor are
manifold, as clients plan on being around longer and are practicing
habits and activities that will allow them to do so.
One of the cornerstones of The New Retirementality
philosophy is to realize that one can separate aging (a largely
physical process) from growing old (a largely attitudinal process).
Aging reflects the relationship of time on our being. Aging describes,
in large part, the state of our body. Old, on the other hand, describes
our state of mind. It has always been a matter of great interest to me
to discover the spiritual and attitudinal aquifer that supplies the
fountain of youth.
Look around and you will see the role spirit and
attitude play in relationship to the concept of being old. Do you know
any 75-year-olds who act like they are 35? Do you know any 40-year-olds
who act like they are 80? If you answered "yes" to either question, you
are affirming the attitudinal and spiritual source of that which
separates those who are aging from those who are old. This distinction
was well-described by Paul the apostle in his letter to Corinth where
he stated, "Though our outward man perishes, our inward man is renewed
day by day."
There is no denying the effects of time on our
bodies. Although we can slow certain physical impacts, we cannot
prevent them altogether. Hair turns gray or falls out. Skin wrinkles.
Senses, like hearing and sight, can begin to dull--as can short-term
memory function. As George Burns once quipped, "You know you're getting
older when everything hurts, and what doesn't hurt doesn't work."
Equally immutable as the decaying dynamic of
physical being is the constantly renewing and refreshing dynamic of our
inner being. This dynamic of engaged living until the day we die is no
accident but is accomplished by the purposeful and intentional
discipline of those souls who choose to live every day they are living.
They are not in denial of the inevitability of death--they simply have
chosen not to give death a head start in their souls. Their attitude is
the rudder that steers the ship in this journey called life.
Release the rudder for a single day and you can
sense a sort of existential seasickness. Release it for a week and you
will drift aimlessly or be tossed upon the rocks. Release the rudder
for any longer period and shipwreck is inevitable. This truth I have
witnessed time and again on the retirement landscape.
So, in observing the forever young, forever
passionate and forever engaged, I have come across five internal
focuses and patterns that constitute what I refer to as the attitude
instrument--that which steers our lives safely through the existential
seas during day upon day of fulfilled and pleasurable living. These
focuses I call the Vitamin Cs of successful aging. They are:
Vitamin C1-Connectivity
Vitamin C2-Challenge
Vitamin C3-Curiosity
Vitamin C4-Creativity
Vitamin C5-Charity
Vitamin C1-Connectivity
Why do people retire and immediately move away to a
place where they have no social connectivity? Not only are they
disconnecting from a major lifeline in the science of successful aging,
they might also find out that they are annoyed with the accents and
culture into which they moved. It might be wise to spend some time
doing reconnaissance on the geography and culture wherein you plan on
staging the next act of your life. Many people disconnect themselves
from important social networks when they retire and don't realize it
until it's too late. Stay connected to people you love, people you
enjoy and people who appreciate you and see value in your presence.
Vitamin C2-Challenge
Alzheimer's disease research demonstrates that being
intellectually challenged and having predictable taxation on our mental
acuity literally has the effect of a finger in the dike holding back
the degenerative processes leading to both Alzheimer's and other forms
of dementia. This research also concluded that as we hit our fifties
and beyond, it is important that we have riddles to ponder, problems to
solve and things to fix. The brain is a muscle that atrophies without
use. One gentleman told me that after six months of retirement he could
literally sense the dulling in his cerebral muscle, with signs of
slowed thinking and sluggish articulation.
Vitamin C3-Curiosity
On a plane ride home from Australia, I sat next to a
physicist named Ken Clark from the University of Washington. In his
late seventies, he is still teaching and researching. I asked him why
he wasn't retired, as was expected of a man his age. His answer was,
"There's so much yet to learn," and he enthusiastically began
describing his latest upper-atmospheric physics research project. When
I saw the sparkle in Dr. Clark's eyes as he spoke, I realized how good
it would be if more seniors had their heads in the clouds of higher
learning.
Curiosity guarantees a pulse in the brain and a
reason to keep our bodies healthy. The role of mental alertness cannot
be overestimated and neither can the benefits of a desire to grow. Once
a person reaches a point where they no longer want to learn or grow, it
is time to order the tombstone. It need not be formal education that
one pursues; it can be self-taught for experiential learning. The
important thing is to have the curiosity and desire to grow.
Age is an uphill road. Learning tasks that demand
mental alertness keeps us in gear. Those individuals who stay neutral
in this area will quickly find that they are going backward. Rigorous
mental function helps both to facilitate productivity in later years
and to strengthen our need and desire to be active--facts that in turn
affect our physical well-being.
Vitamin C4-Creativity
I've long been enthralled by elderly artists in
their eighties and nineties who seem as perspicacious as people half
their age. I once listened to an interview with a Canadian artist in
her nineties whose lucidity of thought and spry articulation was most
inspiring. She also confirmed my suspicions about the virtues of
creative engagement in our later years. She talked about the
aforementioned curiosity being razor-sharp as well. She reasoned that
artists have developed a discipline of observation that requires seeing
what others, less curious, might miss.
A creative soul looks at the shoreline and sees
something new everyday. This might help explain why B.B. King, now over
80, is playing more than 200 nights a year, and why Peter Drucker was
able to write a business best seller in his nineties. Of course, you
don't have to be renowned to be creative and to keep your powers of
observation working. You just have to be curious, intrigued, expressive
and intentional.
A couple of other gems I heard this elderly artist
mention were regularly scheduled, intellectually stimulating luncheons
with people younger than herself, a profoundly diminished sense of
self-consciousness, and two ounces of Canadian Rye each evening for
good measure.
Vitamin C5-Charity
Studies continue to surface around the ameliorative
effects of charitable living upon the quality and longevity of life.
Those who think about helping others often talk about how such
charitable preoccupations keep them from worrying so much about
themselves and the degenerative effects of stress associated with
preoccupation. Even if you didn't live a day longer because of
charitable pursuits, you no doubt would live better.
I'm reminded of a story a financial advisor told
about a client in her seventies who had more money than she could ever
hope to spend but had no charitable interests. He challenged her to
look around her city for places she might like to make a difference. As
she began to observe and listen to her heart, a floodgate of generosity
and empathy began to open up for her. Now, her life is full of causes
she is passionate about; they have put a fresh spring in her step and
added adrenaline to her pulse. It doesn't require money to live
charitably; it just takes concern, generosity and self-transcendence.
This is just one example of how today's advisor can
help clients use their means to add meaning and to fortify the
successful aging process.
©2006 Mitch Anthony. All rights
reserved. Anthony is the president of the Financial Life Planning
Institute and Advisor Insights Inc. He is an industry leader in
training advisors on building life-centered relationships. His numerous
books include The New Retirementality and Your Clients for Life. He can
be reached at [email protected].